


A Little Talk

by evilwriter37



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Broken Bones, Pidge!whump, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-03
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-07-24 16:41:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16179032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evilwriter37/pseuds/evilwriter37
Summary: Zethrid and Ezor torture Pidge in front of Team Voltron. Lance is there to comfort her after.





	A Little Talk

Pidge looked up from where she sat between Hunk and Romelle. Two Galran guards entered, but it was the people that entered after them that made her eyes widen in shock: Zethrid and Ezor, looking very different from the last time she’d seen them. Ezor’s clothes were more fancy, intricate, while Zethrid looked ready for battle, though her left eye was white with blindness.

“Look who’s here,” Ezor said cheerfully. “It’s Voltron.” 

Zethrid pounded her fist into her hand. “We’re going to have a little talk.” The gesture mixed with the threatening tone of voice didn’t make Pidge feel very good.

“Hey!” Lance exclaimed in recognition. “You’re the guys that Lotor shot into space!”

“And the ones that were trying to kill us,” Pidge added sharply.

“Yeah, sure,” Hunk began. “But, we’re all friends now, right?” His voice shook a little and he smiled nervously. “I, for one, am glad you survived.”

“I’m glad you survived too,” Ezor said, speaking as pleasantly as ever.  She leaned in. “It’s no fun torturing a dead person.”

“Oh. So… maybe not?” Hunk was hiding his fear with talking.

“Where have you been all this time?!” Zethrid demanded. “And what happened to Lotor?!” 

“What are you talking about?” Shiro asked.

“We’re talking about your little disappearing act,” Ezor replied.

“Answer the question,” Zethrid ordered. “How did you survive that explosion?”

“Don’t you know?” Hunk shrugged. “You were there.”

“I think there’s a little confusion about how the  _ we  _ ask questions, you give us answers scenario works,” Ezor said.

“Enough of your games,” Zethrid snapped. “Where is Lotor?”

“Lotor’s dead,” Keith answered fiercely. “We left him in the Quintessence Field.” 

Ezor: “Yeah, that doesn’t really add up.” She glanced at Zethrid, then back at them. “Why aren’t  _ you  _ dead?”

“Because… of the power of teamwork?” Hunk responded anxiously. Pidge just gave him a side-eyed glance, wondering if he was being serious about that answer. Then again, this was Hunk. He always said things like that under pressure. 

Zethrid wasn’t having it. “I’m going to ask you one more time. And then we’re going to have to take a more extreme approach.”

Ezor smiled. “The fun part.”

“What happened to Lotor, and where have you been all this time?!”

The members of Team Voltron stayed quiet, glancing at each other. They’d told the truth. What more was there to it?

“If you insist on maintaining this charade of ignorance, you leave us no choice but to apply pressure,” Zethrid growled out with a glare.

“Finally!” Ezor was genuinely enthusiastic. She held out her hand. “Who’s our first victim?”

Zethrid’s eyes landed on Pidge, and she hid her mounting terror with a fierce glare.

“You,” Zethrid said. “I bet half my fleet that this group of heroes has a soft spot for the small one.”

Ezor smirked, came forward to grab her, but Lance suddenly ran in front of her.

“Don’t you touch her!” he shouted, going to ram his bound hands into Ezor. Ezor dodged, jumped up, and kicked Lance hard in the stomach, sending him flying across the cell and landing on his back. He went to rise with a groan, but one of the guards pointed a gun at him, and he remained on his back.

Zethrid huffed. “Your defiance is adorable. And so very misguided.”

“Leave us alone!” Pidge yelled. They’d given them the answer to what they’d asked! Why couldn’t they just accept the answer and let them go?!

Ezor whipped her head forward, the long, tail-like appendage attached to it wrapping around Pidge’s bound wrists and yanking her forward. Pidge gave a startled yell, and then Ezor’s hand was on the collar of her suit.

“Pidge!” Shiro shouted.

“Let her go!” Keith demanded. Pidge couldn’t see what was going on, but she heard a gun being leveled at Keith as well. She kicked her feet weakly, made a sound of protest. Though, she couldn’t hide the terror she was now feeling. Ezor and Zethrid were being serious. She was about to be tortured.

Ezor slammed Pidge against the wall, and she was helpless to do anything but kick her feet against it.

“Answers,” Ezor commanded.

“We already told you!” Keith yelled desperately. “He’s dead in the Quintessence Field!”

“Hm.” Pidge had her eyes closed now, but she could feel Ezor looking her over. “I don’t like that answer.” She yanked Pidge forward, and while she did that she slammed her knee upward, hard into her stomach. Pidge would have yelled at the sudden pain, but her breath was chased out of her, and all she could do was wheeze. Terror shriveled up her insides. This was going to be bad.

  
  


“Hey!” Lance shouted as Ezor’s knee connected with Pidge’s stomach yet again. Pidge was his best friend. He couldn’t stand seeing her being hurt like this. “Put her down!”

“But we’re just getting started!” Ezor proclaimed cheerfully. She did drop Pidge, but then shoved her towards Zethrid, who took her shoulders in a strong grip. Pidge was doubled over, breathing hard. A tear sparkled in the corner of one eye.

Lance wished he could get up from the floor, ram Ezor and Zethrid, do  _ something  _ to get them away from Pidge, but he would die if he did that. He could do nothing with the gun trained on him, nothing but watch. He felt absolutely useless, and there was a sinking pit of dread in his stomach. His friends were just as helpless.

“Maybe pick on someone your own size!” Lance yelled.

Ezor glanced over her shoulder at him. “Oh, but that would be no fun.” Then her attention was back on Pidge, who had mostly recovered from the blows and was trying her best glare, her teeth bared. The pained look in her eyes ruined it. “Zethrid, which part of her would you like to break?”

“Mm, looks like any part would do really.” Zethrid took Pidge’s right arm in two hands, and Pidge struggled, but she was no match for the half-Galra’s strength. “Let’s start with an arm.”

Zethrid grunted, made a motion with her hands. There was an audible snap, and Pidge doubled over, let out an ear-piercing scream that grated Lance to his core.

“We already told you everything!” Allura shouted over Pidge’s continued cries of pain. “Please! We’re telling the truth!”

“Or you’re all just so dedicated to your lie,” Zethrid growled. She squeezed Pidge’s broken arm, which had her kicking and screaming. Tears gushed freely down her cheeks, stained her glasses. Lance could feel his own stinging at his eyes.

“We’re not!” Hunk yelled. “Please!”

Zethrid and Ezor ignored them, and Ezor leaned down to be eye level with Pidge.

“Do you want the pain to stop, little one?”

Usually Pidge would have taken insult at anyone calling her that, but she was probably too lost in agony to care. She whimpered, nodded.

Ezor stroked her under the chin. “Well, then be good and tell us what happened to Lotor.”

“H-he’s dead,” Pidge stammered. “Why won’t you believe us? He’s dead! He’s-  _ argh-ah! _ ” Her words simply broke off into a shriek as Zethrid squeezed hard at her broken arm. Nausea twisted Lance’s stomach when he heard a crunch.

Pidge’s pain didn’t end there. Ezor kicked her in the stomach, and Lance flinched right before the blow landed, knowing what it felt like to be kicked by her. Pidge was shoved back into Zethrid and there was another snap of bone, another terrible scream.

Lance had been trying all this time not to cry, but he couldn’t hold it in now. Pidge was in agony; someone he cared about, someone he loved, his  _ friend _ , and all he wanted was for it to stop, for her to not be in pain anymore. He’d never heard Pidge scream like this before, and it was breaking his heart. What turned it to dust was that he could do nothing.

“Stop!” Shiro yelled, and it sounded more like a command than anything else. Zethrid and Ezor looked to him. “We told you the truth! It’s not our fault that you don’t believe it! Take it and go!”

Ezor shook her head in astonishment. “Goodness, you’re all so  _ convicted  _ in this! If you survived the explosion, then Lotor had to as well. That’s how logic usually works.” She looked back to Pidge, who was doubled over, eyes closed, sobbing quietly. “You won’t even give up the information to save her. Zethrid, I think something else is in need of breaking.”

“I know what.” Zethrid kicked at Pidge’s left leg,  _ hard _ , and there was a crack. Pidge fell to the floor with a shriek, then just lay there sobbing in anguish.

“ _ Stop _ ,” she begged. “ _ Please _ . W-we already told you. Please. It  _ hurts. _ ”

Zethrid stepped on Pidge’s broken leg, and Pidge was writhing, screeching, and Lance brought up his shaking hands to cover his ears, tears streaming down his face. Why was he stuck in this horror? Why couldn’t it just stop? Why did Pidge have to be the one to go through this? Why couldn’t it have been him?

“Tell us!” Zethrid yelled, and Lance heard it over the hands he’d put over his ears, just like he heard the screeching from his friend.

“We told you! We told you!” Lance shouted desperately. He removed his hands from his ears as Zethrid moved her foot from Pidge’s broken leg. “Please!”

Zethrid nodded her head to the guard that had his gun pointed at Lance. “Make that one shut up.”

“Wait!” It didn’t matter. The gun hit Lance in the head, and he went down, pain lancing into his skull, and he saw nothing but white. He landed on his back, rolled onto his side, groaning. He put a hand to his head. That definitely deterred him from saying anything else. Now he had to suffer this silently. He was utterly useless.

Pidge’s shrieking started again, and Lance was too weak to look over and see what was going on. He let himself admit that. He put his hands back to his ears and just cried.

Eventually, the noise stopped. Lance blinked his tears away, lowered his hands. Looking to Pidge, he realized that she was unmoving, unconscious.

“Well, that didn’t last as long as I wanted it to,” Ezor said, crossing her arms. She looked to the rest of the angry, tear-stricken group. “Who’s next?”

The door exploded inward.

  
  


Pidge had lost consciousness to agony, and that was what she woke to. She was laying on her back, and when she opened her eyes, she realized that she was in the Green Lion, her team around her.

“G-guys? What happened?”

“Coran got us out,” Allura said. “Now, we’re going to have to set the bones before we put you in a healing pod. This is going to hurt.”

“But we’re right here with you.” Lance, on her left side, took her hand in his. There was blood on his head, in a trail down the side of his face, like he’d been hit hard with something. He squeezed her hand. “I’m so sorry you had to go through this, Pidge. I’m so,  _ so  _ sorry.”

Pidge teared up. “Why didn’t they just believe us?” she whimpered. In any other situation she’d be ashamed of her lack of composure, but she was with her friends and she just hurt so _ much. _ She wondered how much was broken, wondered if maybe her arm was even shattered. She couldn’t tell. All she knew was white-hot fire in the abused parts of her body.

“Keith, hold her still,” Allura ordered. There was a hand on her shoulder, then a hand on her good leg, and that scared her. It reminded her too much of how Zethrid and Ezor had held and restrained her. She couldn’t help it: she struggled as best as she could.

“Let me go, let me go!” she pleaded tearfully. “Please let me go!”

“Sh, sh. Pidge. It’s us.” That was Hunk’s voice from somewhere.

“It’s us, Pidge.” Lance’s voice, gentle, comforting. “Don’t worry. We’re all here with you. It’s just us.”

“Z-Zethrid and Ezor? What happened to them?” Pidge questioned, stopping her struggling. It hadn’t been much anyway. She was too hurt to really move. It hurt to breathe. Some of her ribs had definitely been broken. She realized that she was no longer in her suit, and that felt a little better at least, but it also left her more vulnerable. She couldn’t lie about it: she was scared. She didn’t want her bones to be set, didn’t want to suffer more. She just wanted it all to stop, please stop.

“They’re dead,” Keith answered. “You’re safe from them. It’s okay.”

“Pidge, I’m going to set your arm on the count of three,” Allura told her. “Alright?”

Pidge knew that she really had no say in the matter, that if she shook her head they’d do it anyway, so she pursed her lips and nodded. Lance gave her hand a squeeze.

“One.”

No. Please don’t do it. It would hurt more.

“Two.”

Pidge didn’t want more pain.

“Three.”

_ Snap!  _

Pidge squirmed to the best of her ability, let out a scream that grated against the insides of her throat, sore from screaming earlier. Then she was left panting, tears trailing down her cheeks.

“Pidge, how do you feel?” Allura asked.

“It hurts, it hurts,” Pidge whined. “Please don’t do my leg. Please don’t.”

“Pidge, we have to,” Allura said. “It’ll never heal and you’ll be in pain forever if I don’t. You wouldn’t want that.”

“Pidge, breathe,” Lance told her. “Take some deep breaths. You’ll be okay. I promise. It’s all going to be okay.”

Pidge looked to him. She felt like a child, but: “Promise?”

Lance nodded. “Yes, I promise.”

Pidge made herself take a few deep breaths, whimpering at the way it hurt her ribs, but it did work to calm her. Though, she flinched when Allura laid her hands on her broken leg.

“On the count of three.”

“No, just do it, Allura,” Pidge said with a shake of her head. “Just do it. No counting.”

“Okay.”

There was another snap, and Pidge screamed, gripped Lance’s hand as hard as she could, fire flashing through her leg, coming at her in waves. Once it was over, she was crying hard, uncontrollably, and that just made her ribs hurt more. It was a terrible cycle and she wanted it to end. When would it end?

“We’re going to get you in a healing pod now,” Lance told her. “You’ll be okay. You’ll sleep and you’ll wake up and be better.”

“Okay, okay. Please!” Pidge was desperate for the pain to stop.

They helped her stand up on her one foot, and Pidge leaned heavily on Lance and Allura. They took her over to the healing pod that had been situated in the Green Lion, gently rested her in it.

“We’re so sorry,” Lance said as he let go of her.

Pidge managed to crack a small smile. “It’s not your fault.”

The lid closed over her, and she fell into sleep. She was finally free of pain.


End file.
